Three days ago at 2:30 a.m. four school aged children from a small Asian country met their host and potential adoptive families for the first time. The children range in age from 7 years to 12 years old.
When they finally arrived after a 36 plus hour trip from their homeland, they were smiling, giggling and hungry. As they entered the building where the families tiredly but excitedly awaited them, they grew quiet and shy. Their escort made the introductions and the smiles slowly came back across their faces and nervous giggling once again filled the air.
For some, the transition was easier than for others. One little one in particular, the youngest of the bunch, had reservations about leaving on the final leg of her journey with her host family. Eventually, she got in the car and headed to their home for the next month. She is small for her age and speaks little English. I wondered how her transition at her new home would go.
Yesterday, we stopped by to visit her and her hosting family. They are all doing really well. I am simply amazed at the strength and courage of this small child...to come half way around the world, to meet people who don't understand your language and to whom you can't really speak, to live in their home, try their food, play their games and learn their way of being a family; to lay down at night in an oddly silent darkness and wake in unfamiliar surroundings, to go from trying one new thing to the next all the while smiling, never giving up on attempting to communicate, allowing love in and returning it many times over....
If this is not true courage, then I think I will never know what courage is.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment